Mother left her 5-month-old baby home alone while she drank, Mesa police say

MESA, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — Police said a woman left her 5-month-old baby home alone Thursday in Mesa to go out and drink. Police stopped 23-year-old Clare Margaret Meacham in the area of Gilbert and Baseline roads after receiving calls around 2:20 p.m. about a possible drunk driver. After being put in handcuffs for suspected DUI, Meacham told officers that she may have left her baby home alone, according to court documents. Officers drove to her home in east Mesa, near Signal Butte and Ray roads, and said they could hear a child crying from outside of the house. Police entered the home, got the child and then called the Department of Child Safety and waited for a family member to take custody of the baby, who was uninjured.

Police said they checked Meacham’s doorbell camera video and noted that she left home at 12:44 p.m., over 2 hours before police located the baby. Meacham told police that she placed her child in the baby crib and didn’t remember anything after that, records show, and that she didn’t try to contact anyone to watch her child while she went out. She lives alone with the baby and the only other person with access to the house is her mother. Meacham was arrested for DUI and child abuse charges.

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